1. Cook quinoa - fry quinoa in some olive oil for a minute or two, add two cups of water for every cup quinoa, add some salt, bring to a boil then cover and cook on a low heat until water is completely absorbed, about 15-20 minutes.2. Meanwhile, roughly chop the craisins, walnuts and herbs. Dice the cheese.3. Once the quinoa is done let it cool first! To room temperature or less.4. Just mix all the ingredients together, add olive oil and salt to taste.

You can use any type of slightly hard, salty cheese. It tastes great fresh and it was good the day after as well. It's also super healthy.

Super Awesome Pumpkin Muffins. I made these this morning, and they are fat-free, and I used half sugar, half splenda, as well as half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour to make them healthier.

DIRECTIONSPreheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Grease 36 muffins worth of muffin pans. I used the little muffin pan paper cups, but my muffins stuck, so you should probably grease those too if you use them. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, splenda, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, pumpkin, and applesauce, until smooth. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly to make a smooth batter. Stir the raisins and walnuts into the batter. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Obviously you could use only all-purpose flour and only sugar if you don't care so much about healthy muffins.

I think I'll try the recipe, but a few comments:1. You can just use whole wheat flour, in my experience. I use it for everything now.2. Vegan usually means nothing from animals. That means meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products (and maybe honey, for some). Vegetarian means (again, usually) no meat, fish or poultry, but egg and dairy is OK. So at least by those definitions they're vegetarian, not vegan.

Argh. Fix'd. I totally knew the definition of vegetarian vs. vegan, I just happened to be looking at a vegan recipe before making the muffins, but made these instead, and had a brain fart.

Also on the all-purpose vs. whole wheat, I have a REALLY hard time getting things to rise enough when I use all whole wheat flour. I think it might have something to do with living at elevation, because I don't have this problem at sea level.

That's weird, I never thought that would be a problem. In Israel at least we have recipes on practically all flour packages, if you have those where you are, try to see what they suggest to make with whole wheat flour, maybe there's a different process required.

I love how SpitValve's reprint of David Morgan-Mar's Fibonacci Numbers program ended up on the dessert list of the index rather than the "other things" list. Maybe the mod in charge didn't recognize Chef source code?

1 can (14 oz. coconut milk)1.5 tablespoons (roughly) grated ginger3 tablespoons (roughly) curry powder1/8 cup (roughly) tamarind dipping sauce. I use a local brand, but I've seen several brands. Should be thinner than honey, and sweet.4 tablespoons of lime juiceDash of hot sauce, or a few shakes of ground red pepperAbout 2 teaspoons of cornstarch

- Put grated ginger, tamarind sauce, lime juice and coconut milk in a small saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally.- Whisk in curry powder and pepper/hot sauce, and continue to simmer.- Whisk in the cornstarch, a bit at a time, until sauce thickens. Add more if needed, or stop adding it if the sauce thickens.

It goes really well with a stirfy I made with tofu, red bell peppers, and sweet potato. I imagine it would go pretty well with just about any stirfry that you want to have a sort of Thai flavor, that's served with rice or I suppose noodles.

Since they're just coming into season:Fried Morels-brush dirt out of morels (you don't really want to wash them)-slice lengthwise or cross-sectionally-dip in egg and crushed saltine crackers (optional)-fry in butter or oil (I use butter, margarine, or canola oil for everything; I hate the smell and taste of olives and olive oils)-crack pepper over them (or shake from a shaker) (optional)-add a little salt of some sort (if you didn't bread them with saltines)

Here is a link to a page which leverages aggregation of my tweetbook social blogomedia.

Divide into two bowls. In one bowl, fold in chocolate chips. In other bowl fold in white chips and dried cranberries. Scoop both out with a small ice cream scoop (a little larger than a typical melon baller, though I don't know the exact measurement. I also pressed mine in before rolling them out). Roll the tops of both kinds in the granola and place about an inch apart on a cookie sheet. I line mine with foil and grease them ever so slightly. Bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes. This batch made just shy of 5 dozen (60) cookies.

Back in our day we had to walk uphill both ways through the snow on fire without feet to get fucking terrible relationship advice from disinterested and socially maladjusted nerds. Belial

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and let bloom for five minutes. Combined shortening and stiff egg whites with the bloomed yeast. Add flour in a cup at a time to form soft dough, let the mixer knead the dough for ten minutes.

I recommend doing this in a mixer but you can do this by hand. Just take the dough out of the bowl you mixed it in and place it onto a floured board. But leave the 1/2 flour out, you will knead it into the dough over the course of the ten minutes. Place the dough in a well greased bowl and let sit for an hour. Punch down the dough after the hour and let rise for another two hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 Celsius) and place a pan of hot water underneath. Punch down the dough once more and divide into 10 to 12 equal pieces. Sprinkle corn meal lightly over the baking sheets and bake for 25 minutes.

Tips:You should use a large bowl if you make these, the dough rises almost 10 times it's size during the second rising. Also you can kill your yeast if you use too hot or cold of water. If you want to use water from your tap, and put your wrist under the water. If it feels too warm or cool to your wrist then adjust it ( or about 105°F or (41 C) - 115°F(46 C). All ovens are different so adjust the cooking time accordingly.

This is one of the easy yeast roll recipes I know. It might seem complicated but it's simple, just follow the recipe and have fun.

d33p wrote:And Karma rode upon a pale horse, and GentleLady followed behind.

Boil water with salt. Add couscous. Cover and wait five minutes.Fluff and add warm milk.Add other ingredients, except nuts (if you're using them). Stir.Heat it up again, not enough to scald the milk. Cover and wait five minutes.Stir. Add nuts.

Takes slightly over ten minutes, and you can make it in a mug with a microwave.

If you have perfectly ripe, sweet berries, you may reduce the sugar called for by half. On the other hand, some berries are so tart that you will need more. I add a bit of vanilla extract to the cream for flavor, but you can consider this optional.Ingredients

* 1. Hull strawberries, then wash them and chop into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. Toss with half the sugar, and wait 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they give up their juices. * 2. Place half the strawberries and all the juice in a blender, and puree. Pour puree back in bowl with chopped strawberries. * 3. Whip the cream with remaining sugar and vanilla until cream is stiff and holds peaks easily. Fold berries and cream together, and serve immediately, or refrigerate for up to two hours.

Variation

* To make a gratin, preheat broiler, setting rack close to heat source. Hull and slice berries, and toss them in a gratin dish with half the sugar. Beat cream with half the remaining sugar and the vanilla, just until it holds soft peaks. Top berries with cream, and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Broil carefully, rotating dish so that cream browns all over. Remove and serve.

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.

The following two recipes aren't my own but are posted by request, nonetheless. For those rare few of you who know Hebrew AND are interested, the book is "Sodot Metukim" by Karin Goren (and it has many more excellent recipes).

1. In a mixer, mix the butter, two sugars and vanilla at medium speed until you get a creamy consistency. Add the eggs one by one until even consistency.2. Lower mixer speed, add the rest of the dry ingredients until you get a good dough.3. Divide the mixture evenly into two bowls.4. Add to one the light ingredients (flour and dark chocolate), mix well. Add the dark ingredients to the other bowl and mix well.

You can form the cookies now but it's better to let the doughs cool for a while, then it's easier to form them.

5. Heat an oven to 190 deg. C.6. With slightly wet hands, form balls 3 cm. in diameter from the mixtures (keep them separate for now).7. Press two balls (one black and one white) together and roll them a bit, just so you get the general shape of a new ball.9. Place them evenly with spaces on a pan with baking paper (forgot its name in English). Bake for about 12 minutes until the white mixture part start to yellow at the edges.10. Let cool.

I baked them in batches of 9, but again they were big. Anyway, the amount of time (12 minutes) was fairly accurate.

Extreme Chocolate CakeThis cake is very bitter and "heavy". If you don't like a sweet dessert - this is the one for you!Ingredients:7 cold eggs400 gr. bitter chocolate200 gr. butter3 tbsp. coffee liquor (I used just two tsp of nescafe because I didn't have liquor)

1. Heat the oven to 150 deg. C. Place a pan at the bottom of the oven and fill it with boiling water (we need a sauna in there).2. In a mixer, whip the eggs for 8 minutes at high speed, until you get a thick, light foam.3. In the meantime, melt the chocolate and butter. Add the coffee, let cool a bit.4. Mix 1/3 of the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Then fold the eggs gently into the coffee mixture.5. Pour to a 24 cm. pan with baking paper. Bake for 40 minutes, until the cake's surface starts to crack. The cake shouldn't seem completely baked.6. Cool, then place in the fridge for at least two hours.7. Eat straight from the fridge or at room temperature. You can use a knife dipped in some hot water to cut it more easily.

The reason for the cold eggs is because they will form a stickier, thicker consistency. Room temperature eggs make a fluffy cake, but this isn't supposed to be fluffy.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt, cut in butter and cream cheese . Add water and vinegar, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix gently until dough forms ball. Let it chill in the refrigerator for any where from half an hour to three days, depending on when you want to use it.

This dough will also keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Just wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in a zip lock bag.

Peel, core and slice your apples. Spinkle the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and salt over the sliced apples in a large saute pan. Let them cook for 20 minutes.

I prefer to cook my apples before I put them in the turnovers. If you don't, just stick everything in a bowl and toss the apples around in the flour mixture.

Once your apples are ready, on a lightly floured surface, roll dough to an 1/8 of an inch and cut it into a 7-in. circles. Place apple slices on half of the circle. Fold dough over filling, sealing edges with fingers or pressing with a fork. Brush with milk. Prick top with a fork. Place on a greased baking sheet.

Bake at 375° for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Edit: I'll figure out the conversions from imperial to metric soon.

Last edited by Gentlelady on Sun May 17, 2009 12:15 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.

d33p wrote:And Karma rode upon a pale horse, and GentleLady followed behind.

I have three questions:1. What do you mean by "cut in butter and cream cheese"? 2. Does it work with any type of vinegar? I'm just being lazy because we don't have apple vinegar at home, but vinegar isn't very expensive and lasts a while so there's no problem to buy it.3. I just want to make sure I get this right - the circles are 7 inches in diameter, so pretty huge? The amount of apples and dough is for one "circle" or more?

Zohar wrote:I have three questions:1. What do you mean by "cut in butter and cream cheese"?

Just cut them into cubes into the flour. When you do this and are ready to bake your turnovers, the water in the butter evaporates and causes steam. And the steam is what causes the flakiness of the crust. It's easier to mix if you cut the cream cheese up too.

2. Does it work with any type of vinegar? I'm just being lazy because we don't have apple vinegar at home, but vinegar isn't very expensive and lasts a while so there's no problem to buy it.

Nope. The apple cider vinegar just gives it a little more flavor. I use regular vinegar most of the time.

3. I just want to make sure I get this right - the circles are 7 inches in diameter, so pretty huge? The amount of apples and dough is for one "circle" or more?

Yeah, you are going to fold over the dough to cover the apples. But you can make the circles smaller or larger, according to how big you want them. And yes, you cut as many circles as you want to or can from your dough. With your scraps just place them in a ball and roll them back out to make more circles. Or you can just cut them into strips, bake them at the same temperature, and eat them with a simple sugar glaze.

Edit: I fixed the instructions for the dough for you. I really should go back and read what I write.

d33p wrote:And Karma rode upon a pale horse, and GentleLady followed behind.

Those sound delicious. If you're lazy, like me, you can substitute the cinnamon and nutmeg with apple pie spice, which is a blend of those two, plus ginger and ground cloves. I'd use probably 1½ to 2 teaspoons of the spice.

As for using a food processor, I've heard that's the best way to do it, since it helps get all the butter or cream cheese broken up evenly into the flour, instead of having huge blobs of said butter in the dough when you try to cut it in using a pastry cutter, or two knives, which is what I've done.

225g unsalted butter110g sugar275g flour (I used self-raising, but the recipe called for plain *shrugs* must not make much of a difference, as there was no rising or anything)WaterAny other dry/wet ingredients (chocolate, raisins etc)

Pour eggs, oil ect. into dry ingredients. Stir till all the ingredients are wet and there are no lumps of flour

Pour into a large cake tin (a circular non-stick tin is best). Don’t use a cake tin with a detachable bottom as the mix will just leak out.Bake at 165°C (325°F) for 75 minutes.(The cake is not done if the middle still wobbles like a jelly if you gently shake it)Stand for a few minutes before turning out.

Icing

Put the icing sugar in a bowl. Add the fruit. Add the cream cheese one tablespoon at a time, stirring as you go. Stop adding the cream cheese when the icing sugar is soft and spreadable.

TEAM SHIVAHNPretty much the best team ever

phlip wrote:(Scholars believe it is lost to time exactly which search engine Columbus preferred... though they are reasonably sure that he was an avid user of Apple Maps.)

Ha ha, that's the Afrikaans for salt. I was typing from my Afrikaans recipe without concentrating enough. Fixed now.

I think you can probably use fresh parsley and garlic - a lot of my mom's recipes are geared towards quick, easy, and stuff you have in the cupboard. I don't know if their flavours will be as intense but as long as you have the cheese and cayenne pepper you will retain the "character" of the recipe I think.

Proverbs 9:7-8 wrote:Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return. Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt. So don't bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you.

Hawknc wrote:FFT: I didn't realise Proverbs 9:7-8 was the first recorded instance of "haters gonna hate"

Juice lime until you have about 2 tbs juice (great way of yeilding more is to let your lime sit in hot water for about 10 minutes, then before juicing it roll it back and forth on the counter while applying firm pressure)

Combine all but Olive oil in food processor pulsing into thick paste. While processor is running, add olive oil until completely combined. Scrape from processor and seal to let flavors marry. I give it about 2 hours, usually, but more time doesn't hurt.

While they're not really healthy, you can pretty much use anything for 'em. Stuffed mushrooms aren't that hard to do, and people seem to like mine, so here goes:

1pkg button mushrooms (or similar shrooms that can be hollowed out) (20-30 shrooms)3-5 slices white bread, shredded or crumbs (I usually just use white bread for this, but you can probably substitute with whole wheat or other loaf breads)2 yellow onions, chopped2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of cheese (cheddar, parmesan, blue cheese: works best with a variety of them)2 green onions, sliced fine1/4 cup or less of almonds/walnuts/pralines/pecans, slivered or lightly crushedTsp chopped chivesVarying dashes of majoram, sage, oregano, basil, pasley (whatever suits your fancy, lots of variations can go with this)Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)Dash of bacon bits (optional)Salt/pepper to taste

1. Fry up chopped onions, chives, garlic, and green onions in butter or cooking oil of your choice at fairly high heat. Carmelize, don't burn.2. While that's cooking, wash and remove the stems from the mushrooms. When you pop the cap off a mushroom, you'll notice that there's a hollow on the inside of the cap where the stem was. Arrange the caps on a baking sheet, and leave it alone for now. 3. Chop up some of the mushroom stems and add to frying onion mix. Don't add too much, only a 1/4 cup or less.4. When the onions are done carmelizing, gradually mix in the bread crumbs/crusts while stirring. Add butter/cooking fat or oil of choice as you go, so it mixes in well. It's not supposed to get crunchy. If it gets dry, add more of the oil/butter. Butter works best from what I can tell with this.5. Add cheese. Gradually drop in a bit at a time, while stirring. This helps it clump together more, and makes it a lot more manageable when you're dropping it into the mushroom caps, besides helping the taste. Make sure it's a fairly strong tasting cheese (avoid the low fat cheeses for the most part, except for the colby jack variations. Low fat mozzarella is pretty nasty and doesn't have much taste). Blue cheese, parmesan, cheddar, and others work well. This should start to look more like stuffing now.6. Add nuts, herbs, salt,pepper, red pepper flakes, and bacon bits (if you like bacon). Mix in with the rest of the stuffing. At this point, you should start lowering the temp if you haven't already. Let it keep cooking for another minute or more and then remove the pan from heat.7. Preheat the oven to around 350F or so. 8. Fill the mushroom caps with stuffing. Try to use your hands and get in as much stuffing in the caps as possible. Usually, it's like a teaspoon to a table spoon or more of stuffing per cap. 9. Sprinkle more salt, garlic powder, or nuts on the mushrooms if you so desire.10. Bake in oven 15-20 minutes, or until brown. Nibble on leftover stuffing.11. Eat shrooms.

I think you can use crab and other stuff in this as well, with other stuffed mushroom recipes. Button mushrooms work the best for it, but as long as you can get a decent hollow out of the mushroom, it'll work.

OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDEDenough nutmeg so that you can smell it, but not notice change in colorsalt, pepper

DIRECTIONSBoil the milk ( ¹ )Melt the butter on a pan large enough for all of the ingredientsAdd, little by little and while stirring, the flour ( ² )Add the salt, pepper and nutmegWhen it starts bubbling and the mixture is opaque without lumps, slowly add the still hot milk. Don't stop stirring.Lower the flame to its lowest, and keep stirring until it reaches desired viscosity (7-10 min)Add cheese and use

( ¹ ) This is VERY important, the difference between a great dish and uneatable crap( ² ) Depending on your flour and butter, you may have to stop before you use all the flour. Simply add as much as you can (not too much) but don't let any lumps form.

I'm not disorganized. My room has a high entropy.

Bhelliom wrote:Don't forget that the cat probably knows EXACTLY what it is doing is is most likely just screwing with you. You know, for CAT SCIENCE!

Ingredients:1 clove of garlic (crushed or minced)1 onion (finely chopped)60g of butter30g of plain flour1 cup of liquid chicken stock1 cup of milk75ml of fresh cream1/2 cup of pizza cheese mix (mixture of grated cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan)50g of vintage cheddar cheese, chopped into small blocks50g of vintage basil and garlic cheese, crumbled into small bits

Method:Part 1Put 30g of butter into a saucepan and melt.Add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is soft and golden.Add chicken stock and reduce to approx half volume.

While Part 1 is reducing,Part 2Melt remaining butter in another saucepan.Add flour and mix. Cook mixture for 4-5 minutes, taking care not to burn the butter.Slowly add the milk over heat, while stirring the mixture. Beat smooth.Add the garlic/onion mixture (part 1) and mix.Add the cheeses and stir well. make sure all the cheese is melted and mixed in.Slowly mix the cream into the mixture. Mix well.

Method:Part 1Put 30g of butter into a saucepan and melt.Add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is soft and golden.Add Apple Juice and reduce to approx half volume.

While Part 1 is reducing,Part 2Melt remaining butter in another saucepan.Add flour and mix. Cook mixture for 4-5 minutes, taking care not to burn the butter.Slowly add the milk over heat, while stirring the mixture. Beat smooth.Add the garlic/onion mixture (part 1) and mix.

Serve hot.

They perceive my perambulations upon my gyroscopically-balanced personal transportation device, and have thus concluded that I am of Caucasian decent, and, while intelligent, I am also somewhat socially inept. - Peculiar Alfred